Kelley Armstrong Interview

In this Kelley Armstrong interview, meet the author who exploded onto the urban fantasy scene with her debut Women of the Otherworld novel: Bitten in 2004. She introduced readers to her world’s first female werewolf Elena Michaels.

Kelley Armstrong brings the Men and the Women of the Otherworld to life.

Later novels would expand her world with new narrators from Paige to Lucas to Hope, Jaime and Jeremy. Armstrong expanded her library with adventures in young adult novels and her Nadia Stafford crime series. Ms. Armstrong took some before her summer vacation to talk to Love To Know Science Fiction about her story telling, her book series and more.

I've been fascinated by the paranormal since childhood. I have no idea why. When I started writing, also in childhood, my stories naturally had elements of the supernatural. As I got "serious" about writing, I was encouraged to get rid of those elements and I did in some of the early books I worked on, but I suppose it's not surprising that when one sold, it was the one about werewolves--that's what I love and it shows.

No, I don't have any regrets about making them parents. That was always their storyline. I don't ever do anything that major on a whim or I'd write myself into a corner. I had to laugh when, after Broken came out, I got a lot of email lamenting the end of Elena as a narrator. I guess, for some readers, having kids means the end of life as you know it. LOL. With Jeremy in the picture, there's no reason why they have to send anyone else out to handle threats or drag the kids along with them.

You may see the fox maidens again, but they aren't at the top of my list for returning characters. I wanted to deal with Jeremy's heritage, but I also moved the fox maidens out of his life indefinitely, sending them on a wild goose chase.

The hardest? Angel, because he's the most important one to "get right" and I was hyper-aware of that as I was writing them. The easiest? The ones I created My lesson from that experience is that as much as I loved the series, I could never know enough to do a spot-on job of all the characters, which was hard for me. I wanted to get it exactly right and I knew I couldn't, which proved that I'm better off sticking to my own fictional universes.

I wish I could tell you! I've been writing since I could put pen to paper, and those early stories are long gone. The first one I remember at all was one I wrote at about 12, and only because it won a contest for young writers. It had ghosts and it was historical, and that's all I recall.

The storytelling isn't different at all. It's the characters who are different, and the impact that they have on the story. What I mean is that, with teens, I'm dealing with different concerns and issues and, more importantly for the story, a different set of tools for dealing with problems. For example, in Stolen, when Elena escapes her captors, she meets up with her friends, they lie low at a hotel in Canada and plot their retaliation. When my teens escape a similar situation, they're stuck holing up in abandoned houses and desperately looking for someone they can turn to for help.

I only plan as far as the book after the current one and sometimes not even that far. I'd say that 50% of the time that I finish an Otherworld novel, I haven't clearly decided who will narrate the next one much less determined a plot. It's different with the YA because they're trilogies, which means I plan all 3 books, at least in a general sense, before I begin.

I'm lucky enough to be able to write full-time, and it's a good thing, because it's more than a 40 hour a week job! A typical writing day starts at about 5:30. I work until I get my kids up, then send them off on the bus at 7:30. I usually write all morning and into the early afternoon, then spend the rest of the afternoon doing business stuff. I stop at 4 when the kids return, then try to get in another hour or two in the evening. On weekends I get caught up on snail mail, email, interviews etc.

Less work, I hope I'm a little over-extended right now, and I've been sharply cutting back on all the "extras" I agree to (short stories, travel and other obligations) I'm contracted for at least 3 more Otherworld and 3 more YA books, and I hope to do 1-2 more in the Nadia crime series.

By teases, I'm guessing you mean on upcoming books? I can say that the next 2 Otherworld ones are Savannah's. She's 21 and finally able to take the helm and get into trouble on her own without the others to protect her. And I'm just starting my fourth YA, which is set in the same world as the first trilogy with new characters and a new Edison Group experiment.

Thanks for interviewing me!

Love To Know Science Fiction would like to thank Kelley Armstrong for taking the time to share her thoughts with LTK readers. You can keep up with Ms. Armstrong and her future publications by visiting her website.

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